Bridging the talent gap

The U.S. steel industry, marked by restructuring and static capacity, is at a critical point. After more than a century of historic global leadership in manufactured goods production, U.S. domestic manufacturing overall has faced challenges, in share of gross domestic product and employment. Broadly, the global manufacturing industry has seen an uneven recovery from the financial crisis of the last decade, with overcapacity persisting worldwide and supplies of raw materials remaining subject to price volatility. The American steel industry, in particular, must effect double-digit growth (23 percent) to maintain only a single-digit share (6 percent) of the total global steel market by 2025, while rest-of-world producers stand to continue to claim the majority proportion.

This highlights the need for concerted industry effort to attract, train, and retain a new skilled workforce, as a pivotal factor in reinvigorating the domestic steel industry. Even the most favorable market conditions will falter without a revitalized labor force of specialized, skilled talent to perform and innovate, in both traditional and advanced manufacturing, in both blue collar and white collar jobs.

The imperative is on the U.S. steel industry to address the current skills gap on its own behalf — and for benefit of the broader American economy — with a coordinated collective effort to revitalize its human capital. Doing so may not only help the industry reclaim a global market share but, through innovation, usher in entirely new possibilities for generating value.